Country Ham and Cheddar Pretzel Bites with Honey Mustard

My husband’s fantasy football season is over. My home team Titans didn’t make it into the postseason. My father-in-law’s beloved Packers exited in week 1 of the playoffs. Three reasons why my attention for football can now be fully directed where it really belongs – to food for the Super Bowl!

Some watch the Super Bowl for the actual game. Some for the commercials. Some for the half-time entertainment. Some to see how much money they’ve won (or lost). But the spread I care more about is the one on my table.

You can safely bet that these will win the coveted MVP award for the Most Valuable Pretzels. Filled with salty country ham and oozing cheddar cheese, these are truly super bites for the Super Bowl.

Stir together yeast, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, and warm water in a large bowl and let stand until foamy, 5 to 8 minutes. (This is called proofing the yeast. If it doesn’t foam, the yeast is dead, and you’ll need to start over with new yeast.) In a separate bowl, stir remaining 2 tablespoons brown sugar into warm milk until dissolved.

Add 2½ cups flour and milk mixture to yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms, adding up to ½ cup additional flour, a little at a time, if needed to make it less sticky.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead a few times to form a smooth ball. Transfer to a clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled and bubbles appear on surface, about 2 hours.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut into 4 equal pieces. Lightly dust your hands with flour, then gently roll and stretch 1 piece of dough to form a 12” long rope. Flatten dough and arrange so a long side is nearest you, then roll out to a roughly 12×4” rectangle with a lightly floured rolling pin. Gently press ¼ of ham and cheese into lower third of rectangle, leaving a ½” border along bottom edge.

Stretch bottom edge of dough up over filling and press tightly to seal, then roll up as tightly as possible to form a rope. Cut rope into 12 pieces and transfer to a sheet pan lined with a Silpat or parchment paper.

Make 3 more ropes with remaining dough, ham, and cheese and cut into pieces, transferring to prepared sheet pans. Let rest at room temperature, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Dough will rise slightly.

While pretzel bites are resting, preheat oven to 400°F with rack in upper and lower thirds.

Bring 6 cups water to a boil in a large saucepan. Reduce heat and stir in baking soda. Cook pretzel bites in batches in gently simmering water, turning once, until slightly puffed, about 20 seconds. Transfer with a slotted spoon to prepared sheet pans.

Bake until puffed and golden-brown, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir together mustard and honey. Taste and adjust to your liking.

Surely you’ll be rooting for Peyton while you’re eating all that yummy food! Question about pretzels in general: I came across a recipe for traditional pretzels right before reading your post, and the boiling in water step scared me a bit. Is it tricky? Does the filling want to fall out into the boiling water?

Hi Angie – The lye dip for traditional pretzels also scares me. However, the good news is that making these pretzel bites doesn’t involve any caustic agents! The brief dip into the simmering baking soda water is an attempt to mimic the traditional lye bath. The baking soda bath helps the pretzel bites brown. It’s not a tricky step, but I did find that using a “spider” rather than a slotted spoon made removal from the pot a bit easier.

The filling didn’t fall out into the water, as you can see here if you scroll down. If you’re concerned about losing any of your country ham or cheesy goodness, you could pinch the edges closed after you cut each log into 12 pieces. I had the same concerns the first time I made these and did pinch them closed. But, in the end, I found that I didn’t like how you couldn’t see what you were about to bite into – they just looked like pillows of dough. I prefer not to pinch the edges closed to give a sneak peak into the filling. Plus, oozing cheese is always good in my book!

And, since I’ll be rooting for Peyton, we can still be friends, right?

this looks so do-able, I can’t wait to try it. saw this on tastespotting.com great to see that you are in middle tn as well. I’m gonna try this with cheese and some variation of veg. but of course when is cheesy anything a bad idea?

Hi Danielle! Great to hear from a fellow Middle Tennessean! You can certainly swap a vegetable for the country ham, but you may also want to check out my Broccoli Bread for another cheesy vegetable bread option.

Hi Christina – I wouldn’t suggest boiling them and not baking them straight away as I suspect this would lead to a soggy mess. (See below for how they look coming out of the baking soda dip.) My advice then, if you want to make them in advance, is to boil, bake, cool, and freeze. When needed, let thaw 30 minutes and reheat in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Jenn,
Wow!! I’ve made these a few times and, until I saw your photos, I had considered myself an expert! A++ on the presentation!! Your photos make the ones on Gourmet.com look like they were prepared by amateurs!. Happy New Year!
Brian